Dick Van Dyke with his wife Arlene and Mary Poppins at the Jolly Holiday Bakery and Café dedication

I’ve been looking through some of my old blog posts recently and came across this one from a couple of years ago that had managed to escape being published. Although it is old news, I thought I’d share.

The wonderful thing about being flexible and keeping your eyes and ears open when you travel is the fun, sometimes once in a lifetime, events you can stumble upon. Even with Disney vacations, there can be an element of the unexpected if you are willing to ‘go with the flow’ and make changes to your plans when something comes up. We’ve been able to attend Annual Passholder events including special movie screenings, got to meet the ‘voice of Mickey Mouse’, and enjoyed the first ‘Glow with the Show’ performance of Fantasmic a few years ago. Sure, we did have to adjust our plans a little but the memories we made were worth it.

This week I had the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream – to ‘meet’ Bert the chimney sweep in person. OK, I know Bert is an imaginary character and no, I was not quite close enough to shake Mr. Van Dyke’s hand, but I did get the chance to see him right up close during the special dedication at the Jolly Holiday Bakery and Café. As one of the many fans who arrived early, I was able to nab a prime spot right near the steps where he demonstrated a few of the nimble dance moves he is so famous for. We hadn’t planned to attend and, in fact, weren’t aware it was happening until late last week. We had planned to drive down the coast on Sunday but didn’t think twice about spending the day at Disneyland instead.

Mary Poppins has always been one of my favorite movies. I remember our elementary school used to run movies in the gym one weekend a month and every month I would vote for Mary Poppins. Of course, this was back before we had Netflix, DVD players or even VCRs so you had to actually access the film reels to watch your beloved characters come to life. I do love Julie Andrews and wanted to grow up to sing just like her, but Mary Poppins would not have been the movie it was without the performance of Dick Van Dyke. Walt Disney certainly knew what he was doing when he asked him to play the part.

A group photo of us waiting for Mr. Van Dyke from the Facebook event page

Following the dedication, there was a birthday serenade from the balcony of the Dream Suite. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get any pictures of this one since the crowd had gotten huge by then. I decided to focus on getting over to the parade route in anticipation of the Birthday Cavalcade Pre-Parade event on Main Street.

Knowing that I wanted to get a good spot, my husband staked out a bench at the end of Main Street, near the statue of Walt and Mickey Mouse. It was a terrific spot and the day was sunny and warm. Disney Parks cast members visited with the children in the crowd, handing out postcards and crayons so they could write letters to Santa. There was a festive mood all along the street.

The Disneyland Band entertains the crowd prior to the afternoon parade

The huge crowd was dotted throughout with a variety of chimney sweeps and even a couple of characters from some of his other movies. A cheer went up when it was announced we would be celebrating Dick Van Dykes 90th birthday. Even with a several fans in assorted costumes (some handing out paper kites to folks in the crowd) not everyone had figured out what was going on.

Mary Poppins on her carousel horse from Mickey’s Soundsational Parade led the cavalcade

Dick and Arlene Van Dyke in Walt’s runabout

Dick and Arlene Van Dyke arrived on Main Street in one of Walt’s runabouts, followed by a group of dancing penguins and a very energetic crew of chimney sweeps. It’s wonderful to see how popular this very talented man continues to be. Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised since our eight-year-old grandson loves to watch DVDs of the old Dick Van Dyke show (the one where Rob brings home a pair of ducks left over from a show is one of his favorites!)

The afternoon ended with the crowd singing Happy Birthday to the man of the hour before he boarded the train at the Main Street Station. But the day wasn’t yet complete for me. I still had to head back to the Jolly Holiday for one of their special cupcakes! Quite satisfactory 🙂